A researcher from the University of California, San Diego, Brent M. Wilson, recently led a study on meditation and memory whose results are now published in the journal Psychological Science. He and his research team used three variations on a word recall experiment to begin to understand how meditation might affect experimental participants' ability to accurately remember words that had been shown to them previously. After just 15 minutes of meditation, participants were (in every variation of the setup) significantly less good at accurately recalling the words they had seen (and only the words they had seen). The participants who spent 15 minutes allowing their minds to wander before the experiment instead of meditating remained in better touch with reality.

The lead researcher hypothesizes that meditation contributes to memory muddle because it encourages practitioners to observe their thoughts without scrutiny or judgment. This sounds nice in theory, but it may be that that level of scrutiny is what helps us to distinguish memories with external sources (i.e. the real world) from the many mere thoughts dancing through our heads.

None of this necessarily gives you good reason to quite meditating for a few minutes per day with a phone app or something, but like any immersive hobby, mindfulness has its pros and cons. Whether you're new to meditation or about to commit to a new class or retreat, you should pause to consider what you're hoping to get out of it. Stereotypes aside, probably nothing will really make you feel at "one with the universe," and it may be risky to try. A more modest goal of reducing stress (and a more modest practice schedule) may be best. And don't try to do anything right after meditating that requires super clear thought.